Speak to most people, and they'll tell you that the real revolutionary area of car design in the next ten-to-fifteen years will be the interior - and more specifically, the interface. J Mays went to great lengths last month to emphasize how important the HMI would be in future, and just how quickly it's changing.

Ford wants to be a leader in this area - and the Lincoln C concept, with its all singing, all dancing future-format of Sync, complete with apps, avatars and assistants, is the company's statement of intent to this end. Ultimately though, digital convergence in vehicles has the potential to be problematic. As Jean Jennings suggested in our recent interview with her "I always say, 'if it doesn't make you drive better, make it go away'". This gives designers and engineers a potential conflict when it comes to a future pointing towards future hybrids, EVs and so forth.

Put simply, three main factors determine how efficient and economical a car will be. Its configuration (size, weight, drivetrain type). The conditions (traffic and meteorological) within which it is being driven. And the difficult one for designers - the person behind the wheel. How the driver physically inputs on the car's controls (accelerator, brake, steering) massively impacts upon its economy - which is why we often see huge disparity in fuel economy figures on a given car. Clubfoots Charmer and Simpson managed a rather pitiful combined figure of 38mpg from our week in a Honda Insight. But Honda have been running a hypermiling challenge which has seen people get up to 80mpg.

It was this issue that a Ford team set out to solve with their Smartgauge system - the instrument panel on the new Ford Fusion Hybrid. The question at hand, in its most basic format, was how to help people get the best possible economy from the vehicle, without distracting or annoying them - and without frightening away those new to hybrids. Jeff Greenberg, project leader on the Smartgauge programme, explained to us how the team developed two guiding principals based on this. The first was the notion of a journey - allowing a driver to progress, learn and develop their driving by growing with the system over time. The second was the idea of a coach - a positive encouragement to help drivers get the most out of their vehicle, as opposed to being lectured and bossed into how to drive more economically. Over to Jeff...

Ultimately, the key breakthrough Ford have made with Smartgauge feels similar to Apple with the iPhone. They have created something simple to look at, which by using just screens (rather than physical knobs, buttons or gauges) can display different information, which is (potentially) infinitely configurable and changeable via software updates. Using two, 5.5' TFT screens either side of the central speedometer, Jeff and his team were able to arrive at four different 'levels' of operation by which a driver could use Smartgauge and interact with the Fusion hybrid. All of which sounds a little daunting before you see it - so the car is set up to be quite simple, and welcoming upon your first acquaintance with it, as demonstrated to us in this video...

While other hybrids tend to feature either a basic setup to indicate how the drivetrain is working (Ford's own Escape Hybrid), or a complex set of show-off graphs and complex diagrams (Toyota Prius), the Smartgauge is designed to make the Fusion Hybrid appeal to all-comers - from those buying their first hybrid, to those who are committed hypermilers who've clocked 100,000 miles in their Prius(es). The driver can choose from four different levels of display, which, as they progress from one to the next, gradually adds extra layers of information to help inform on what the car is doing, and to help the driver extract the best economy. The levels are known as Inform (most basic), Enlighten, Engage and Empower (most advanced)...

But what's it actually like on the road? Having had Jeff walk us through the system at a standstill, we went out on the roads of Dearborn to experience it for ourselves...

What's impresses about the display is its clarity and functionality, regardless of which level you are in. It could clearly appeal to multiple different types of driver. Newbies won't be scared off, while those who enjoy showing off their Prius's fuel economy graphs will love the most advanced levels where you can do things like see how much power drain the vehicle's accessories are creating. Crucially, as it's on the dashboard and in the driver's line of site, Smartgauge really makes it easy to coax the car along in EV mode for long periods (therefore achieving better fuel economy) without taking your eyes off the road. The bright green glowing EV symbol that lights up in the more advanced modes is a great 'corner of the eye' tell-tale to this effect.

The project illustrates the clear benefits that come from new ways of thinking, and greater openness and collaboration in the auto industry. The Smartgauge team worked closely not only with designers and engineers within Ford, but with the most famous user-design/research guys of them all - IDEO, and conducted extensive, ethnographic research - not only with hybrid drivers, but with those who drove hummers, bicycles, and even professional athletes and their trainers. Ultimately, this advanced and comprehensive approach to research, coupled with a simple, but subtle, rethink of how to utilise TFT screens to make most appropriate use of available software - as opposed to hardware - results in a highly impressive, engaging vehicle.

That the car itself is really impressive, needing no excuses for being a hybrid, helps. However, this display is the car's piece-de-resistence, one that will not only help drivers to achieve greater fuel economy than they might on their own, but keep them engaged, surprised and delighted by the car in a way that many vehicles don't once that new car sheen has worn off. Not only does the system make the car more fun to drive, it makes those behind the wheel better drivers. In our view, that means the team behind it deserve the upmost praise and respect.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 18th June 2009

Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design and research work throughout 2009. We have an independent brief - and want to hear from you if it doesn't seem that way.

Today, on the terrace behind London's Somerset House, Riversimple launched the culmination of nine years research and development - their new open source, hydrogen powered city car. Like Local-Motors in the US (more on whom soon), Riversimple are utilising open source principals to design and develop a new car. But that's only half the story. Riversimple have, in effect, today launched a blueprint for how the car industry could reinvent itself - with wholesale changes to the way vehicles are designed, how they're fueled, where and how they're built, and how they're sold.

We captured a heap of footage at this morning's launch event and we'll get much of it online over the next day or so. Like us, you might be sceptical about the potential of hydrogen fuel cells, or the application of open-source principals in a hardware, rather than software setting. In this first video, Hugo Spowers - CEO of Riversimple, explain some of the principals behind, and answer some of the pressing questions about the car and the company behind it. It makes for interesting watching...

Full photoset by Mark, from today's event (click on photos to go to the flickr page):

Note: All of The Movement Design Bureau's published content - including our videos and photos you see, is creative commons 3.0 licensed. That means you can use it, republish it or mash it up on your own site - just include a link back to this page.

Until recently, the typical hybrid buyer tended to be the sort of person you’d try to avoid sitting next to at dinner parties. Ok, perhaps that’s a bit mean, but one had to be fairly committed to the cause to go hybrid.

However, things are changing. A new Prius is here, which (whisper it) doesn’t drive like a mooing double bed on castors anymore. A couple of weeks back we reviewed Honda’s Insight, which can be had at a cheaper price than a hybrid’s ever been before. And then you can throw into the bargain the new Ford Fusion Hybrid - we’ve driven it, and it’s brilliant (unlike the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, which isn’t). Hybrid’s going mainstream.

Manufacturers are falling over themselves to ready hybrids – even once staunch opponents such as VW – because the technology is settling as one pattern by which America will go green. Europeans have long known diesel will deliver similar fuel economy benefits as a hybrid – but those on the other side of the pond still aren’t too sold on the idea. Before we embark on a Euro-bash of Americans and/or hybrids, there are fairly credible reasons for this. Diesel’s more expensive to buy in the US than in Europe – here, diesel’s been pushed (with tax breaks) – particularly by the French and Germans, so there’s now much more refinery capacity, for instance. And while diesel delivers better fuel economy (and hence lower CO2 emissions) than petrol, NOx and particulate matter from diesel exhausts are still problematic. They contribute to local respiratory diseases, and cost big money to reduce. Just ask Mercedes, BMW and VW who are adding expensive ‘ad-blue’ exhaust treatment systems to the cars they sell in North America, in order to pass the Tier II Bin 5 regs (don’t ask).

In Europe, we've long believed diesel is the way to go - particularly when you need serious torque, in the world of SUVs and pick-ups.

What’s really significant is that Porsche and, yes, even Ferrari, will soon debut hybrids. Hybrid technology in performance-orientated cars is serious news. It’s easy to argue manufacturers who are about to get hit over the head (with heavy fines) by the EU over fleet emission have to go down this route, but that misses the point.

Firstly, it means that hybrid technologies can be seen to have benefits in a wide spectrum of automotive applications (not just ones primarily aimed at city-based, compact family vehicles bought by people who aren’t gear-heads). Secondly, it alludes to the notion that hybrid technology could actually enhance, rather than detract from the driving experience. The Prius and Insight are automotive cardboard. One doesn’t extract pleasure from piloting them down a challenging road. But if the technology is arriving in a Porsche and a Ferrari, then you can be sure that is about to change. ‘Fun’ and ‘hybrid’ will shortly be appearing in the same sentence, without being followed by guffaws.

This slow but steady greening of the automotive industry bears remarkable similarity to a previous automotive ‘trend’, which resulted in a complete attitudinal change in consumers back in the 1990s.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, only Volvos and Saabs were famed, and bought, for their safety. Of course, Mercedes had invented the airbag back in the 1970s - and it was appearing on top of the line S-classes in the late 1980s, but very little else. Then in 1993 Ford launched the European Mondeo – the first real mainstream affordable car with a driver’s airbag fitted as standard across the entire range. Except, in the UK, Vauxhall decided to beat Ford to it, literally by weeks, by doing the same in their updated Cavalier.

Once upon a time, only Volvo (above) and Saab were renowned for safety prowess.

By 1995, buying a new car that didn’t have a driver’s airbag was the exception rather than the norm. Then in 1997, Euro NCAP appeared. Suddenly, buyers knew which cars were ‘safe’ and which weren’t – and it was being thrust in their face. Safety became a selling point – which brands like Renault capitalised on. Come 2009, and it’s odd for any vehicle not to get 5 stars (the top crash rating) in a Euro NCAP test. Cars are much more crashworthy than the ones of twenty years ago. Consumers expect safety. They believe if they’re involved in a 40mph shunt, they’ll walk away. It took them a while, but it became the expected norm. Cars which flunked tests, suffered in the sales figures.

It sounds cynical, but I think that’s what you’ll see with hybrids, and green cars generally. Before long, it looks likely most new cars will include - at a basic level - something like stop-start technology. This is a big deal in itself, because emissions and wastage from idling cars in traffic is huge. But it’s looking like many vehicle will include some kind of hybridisation – regenerative braking, additional electric motors, a road-going version of F1’s KERS.

One day, will all vehicles wear this badge?

So what you might say? There are three main reasons this is important:

It will cut emissions and raise fuel economy standards across the board.

It means the fun to drive, performance-orientated car is far from dead.

It conditions the market. Consumers, brought up for 100 years on a constantly running petrol or diesel motor, get used to the fact their car turns itself off at the lights, needs starting up in a different way, or doesn’t have a conventional gearbox. That’s good news – it leads us down a path of faster acceptance and uptake of new technology, and new forms of vehicles.

BMW's efficient dynamics campaign

The revolution is here now, and already being advertised. BMW calls it efficient dynamics. Audi’s just jumped on the bandwagon – and is calling it ‘recuperation’. Just as safety was the selling point of the 90s, judging by current adverts, hybrid, energy and green have now gone mainstream too. Before long, the consumer will expect – and likely demand - it.Posted by Joseph Simpson on 10th June 2009

Bill Ford is a man on a mission. He’s currently championing the idea of raising gas taxes, something that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable for a car company boss to say. But we live in changed times. Chrysler is in bankruptcy protection, with GM perhaps shortly to follow, but Ford's balance sheet isn’t entirely rosy either with a net loss of $1.4Bn in the last quarter, and sales off 30 percent. Scarier still, Porsche (most profitable car company in the world by reputation, trying to swallow – now merge with, VW) reportedly came close to bankruptcy for three days in March (schadenfreude anyone?).

So why does Bill Ford think these are exciting times to be in the auto industry? Because what he has talked about for years – big and scary stuff, namely change – is now happening. Bill (Ford) is the guy who set Ford (Motor Company) on the path towards a more sustainable future. Doing things like hiring 'eco architect' William McDonough to rebuild the Rouge site was the start. He oversaw the hiring of Alan Mulally as CEO – a man from outside the auto industry, who had overseen the most radical restructuring of an industry’s development process (Boeing) that had been seen for 50 years. And now, the assembled team at Ford are bringing you the all-conquering Fiesta, a Fusion hybrid which out hybrids the Japanese, a real Taurus and the next euro-Focus, which you just know is going to be top of its class. Ford has a line of products people want. What it’s done, doing and thinking about is strong enough to get hard-bitten journalists like Jean Jennings – editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine – talking about the firm like this:

But more than that – signs are even there that Ford’s daring to stick its head up above the gun turret and have a think about scary future concepts like car sharing, high-speed rail and mega cities. To which we say: get on with it guys!

The mood of optimism in Dearborn is palpable, but Ford must be careful not to appear smug. It is likely to benefit from the current difficulties its neighbours from across town are experiencing. Spend some time online and you might have noticed the brand throwing its weight around too. Ford recently ranked first among automotive brands in terms of Internet buzz. That’s thanks to campaigns like Fiesta Movement; and people like Scott Monty – who you’ll find here, there and everywhere in the world of automotive social media; not to mention them letting some weird guys from the UK in to interview top Sustainability and Design brass.

Ford's innovative 'Smartgauge' display screen debuted in the Fusion Hybrid - which Jean Jennings talks about in the video above

The path ahead is fraught with pitfalls. Having supported auto bailouts until now, John Fleming – Ford of Europe’s chairman – became a dissenting voice last week, suggesting that nationalistic bailouts to Europe’s other car makers (think French) were putting the company’s European arm at a competitive disadvantage. What’s more, few are convinced Americans want small cars, and building hybrid and electric vehicles is hellishly expensive. Compounding this is that if gas stays sub $2/gallon, no one’s buying small, and no one’s buying eco – which could prove problematic. No wonder Bill wants increased gas taxes. And while Ford and Toyota pursue ‘top-up’ plug in hybrids and pure electric vehicles, the Chevy Volt might still prove to be the ideal third way. Ford has a five-powertrain future strategy, covering petrol, diesel, hybrid, plug-in and pure EV - which tries to cover all possible bases - but it’s going to be hugely expensive to develop all of them well, especially considering uber-stringent diesel emission regulations, and the fact that you need different cell chemistries for hybrids, plug-ins and pure ev batteries.

One ace up Ford’s sleeve? Electric delivery. We launched our project on this last week, because we think it’s one of the biggest ‘win’ areas in transportation today. While everyone gets hung up on moving people around, it’s goodslogistics and delivery which presents arguably a bigger problem – and a greater opportunity - right now. Clearly someone at Ford has realised this, and the electric version of the Transit Connect delivery truck will be arriving shortly, and we’ll be following it every step of the way to launch and beyond.

Risky Ford’s path may be, but the auto industry’s going to hell in a hand-cart right now, so someone has to stick their neck out. Bill Ford appears to have got a taste for doing that, which is why he’s enjoying the ride. He clearly recognises the need for industry and regulators to work together, and understands the benefit in Ford sharing some of what it’s learnt so far (green roofed factories) and sharing risk in tomorrow's future strategies (city and electric power company partnerships). So 101 years after his great grandfather pretty much invented the auto industry, could Bill Ford re-emerge as ambassador and mouth piece for not only Ford - but the wider industry's future? Stranger things have happened.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 26th May 2009

Images: Bill Ford: Ford media Others: Movement Design Bureau

Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design research work in 2009

News broke over the weekend that London Mayor (and big cycling advocate) Boris Johnson, was almost killed in a bizarre cycling incident while out 'recceing' cycle routes. Watch the video for what is quite simply a freakish chain of events. While what Boris endured could hardly be described as an every day occurrence, London cyclists will be familiar with the dangers the Mayor was in.

The video is proof, it it was needed, that London still has some way to go before it meets his desire to be a truly great 'cycling city'. You'll notice that, along with the parked cars narrowing the flow, the truck itself hits a speed cushion, which actually triggers its rear door to swing open. London has for some years been taking the obstacle-course approach to pathway design - speed cushions, width restrictors, bollards and more. It's debatable whether these make things safer for cyclists, when really the issue is combining bikes with much larger vehicles.

Perhaps the silver lining is that this incident will be permanently imprinted in Boris's head now. Despite his claims that "London's a great cycling city" it's not. Spend ten minutes in a Dutch city and the reality dawns. Cyclists here must share lanes with London's huge buses and the cycle route network is largely an apologetic, indirect, network of side roads and badly laid out pavement alterations. In the Netherlands, the cyclist rules above all others - pedestrians, cars and trucks all cede to the bicycle. In the UK we pretend that the pedestrian has priority, but the reality is, it's always the car - or truck. If there's a spark that will mean London gets real green pathways - clear streets that are only for use by bikes and perhaps the odd other vehicle, this might be the moment that triggered it...

Fleet vehicle buyers can spend the time to understand the bottom line benefits - environmental and financial - for making the electric vehicle switch in a way that ordinary car buyers cannot always do, making fleet buyers able to switch to new electric vehicle options more easily than ordinary car drivers.

Our new project - Electric Delivery - seeks to understand the commercial electric vehicle market in real detail: over the next six months we will talk to vehicle manufacturers, fleet managers, drivers, customers, and everybody else involved in making real electric vehicles work.

That's for tomorrow. Electric Deliveryis about documenting the progress of the working electric vehicle today. White vans first.

See more of The Movement Design Bureau's coverage of future transport, strategy and vehicles - including several in depth interviews and analysis with Ford's top sustainability and design people, here.

Eric Britton has a plan. The man behind worldstreets.org, thinks a lot about the future of transport, and its connection to the overheating nature of the planet. His 'Plan B' vision is a radical twelve point blueprint that he thinks needs to be gone through to stop us cooking the planet - and is an interesting read.

In the green transport field right now, alongside electric cars, high-speed rail, and all the usual stuff that gets tossed around, perhaps the most intriguing idea concerns not the development of new products, but the networking together, and sharing of existing ones. Our cars, bicylces, space - how do we 'use' them more effectively? Take cars. Right now, we're fast-forwarding to a world of hybrids and EVs - but what's the point when we've still got single vehicle occupancy, one-person-to-one-car ownership, and one hour in every 24 utilisation rates?

The problem is that at the very heart of the notion of today's car is a concept built around ownership, freedom and the ability to cut yourself off in a little glass and steel box. Your car is a space that, right now, you probably only choose to 'share' with your friends and family. Sharing a car with a complete stranger (even if you're not both in it at the same time) is a relatively big leap to make, but it's something worth thinking about.

That's what Eric wants to look into in more depth. So in the video chat (above) we had with him a few weeks back, he described the idea of a conference - for want of a better word - to draw people together to talk about sharing within the bounds of future transportation. On the first day, Eric suggests transportation-related talk should be banned. Instead, the attendees - linked together with experts and interested parties across the world via video and internet, would seek to understand the human psychology behind sharing things. Then on the next days, this would be developed into the field of transportation applications. The big news? Eric doesn't think it will work without a woman at the helm...

Right now there's a lot of confusion about the kinds of activities that various future grid-powered vehicles will support. Today, everybody is used to the idea that you can drive as far as there are gas stations, and that there are gas stations all the way to the ends of the earth. Which isn't quite true, but close enough!

Electric vehicle manufacturers argue that the vast majority of travel isn't multi-day drives through the tundra, but within twenty or thirty miles of home. So plug-in-hybrid manufacturers hope you will make most of those trips mainly running off stored grid power. The fully electric vehicle manufacturers hope that by extending range further, to one or two hundred miles, you can make all your trips fully electric. It’s worth looking at this landscape in more detail.Shopping trips are short, local round trips of less than about 20 miles. Both plug in hybrids and full EVs have no problem with battery capacity for these short hops. Even unconventional options like compressed air cars can also handle these frequent, short trips with no problems.Commuting trips are longer, regular trips. A typical round trip is 40 to 60 miles, but could be up to 100 to 120 miles per day. A plug-in hybrid would probably switch to gasoline power for a part of many of these trips. A full EV might have enough battery capacity for the regular commute, depending on its length, but perhaps not enough for a side trip on top of a long commute. This is the territory where another thirty miles on the round trip can make a substantial difference. Buyers of first generation EVs, in a time when charging infrastructure away from home may be spotty, will have to count their miles carefully.

Traveling trips are weekend journeys, road trips, and the three-hour drive to your aunt. Right now, hybrids will make these trips on gasoline to all intents and purposes. A plug-in hybrid battery will help for the first fifty miles, but after that it will be operating primarily on gasoline. Electric vehicles have real problems at this distance, and there are several opinions about what to do at this range. For the moment it may be as simple as "rent a gas car for the weekend."

On stage at Daimler's museum, right now, Daimler and Tesla are
announcing a strategic alliance. Daimler plans to invest in Tesla -
quoting it paid "a double digit million-dollar sum for around a ten percent stake" in the silicon valley company. The two will go forward to co-operate, perhaps - we speculate - even on future models.

Talking
about how the two combine the best of 'future' and 'historical' auto
industry, what we found most interesting about what is being said, is
that Daimler - one of the most vehement pushers of Hydrogen technology
to date - has suddenly decided it needs to get on board the EV train.

Secondly,
that Daimler says an alliance with Tesla allows an electric-mobility
future to be got to market much faster, because of the small, flexible,
quick-responding nature of a small company like Tesla. Daimler further
announced that by 2012 it would begin mass production of Smart EVs -
and make them available to regular customers (at present, Daimler and
Tesla are co-operating on a limited test fleet of Smarts). Mercedes
will also help Tesla with future vehicle development, and even supply
components in the future, the company said.More soon...

[This piece first appeared on BritsOnGreen - The Movement Design Bureau's new dedicated strand for green news and insight]

Honda's Insight left the official Movement Design Bureau parking space (alright, the road outside the office) just over a week ago now, so having produced this light-hearted video review towards the end of its time with us, we've now had the chance to think about the car a little longer. Our lasting impression? A total bag of contradictions.

The Insight is at once both deeply impressive and yet slightly disappointing. Why? In short, because Honda has managed to wrap apparently smart, up-to-the-minute technology in a package that's both easy to live with, fine to drive and affordable for the average c-segment (think Golf, Focus) car buyer. Yet at the same time, that technology failed to deliver real world results in our hands, and out of a town environment, the Insight feels out of its depth - leaving us questioning the point of that slippery, low-drag 'kamm-tail' shape and the packaging compromises it has created elsewhere in the car.

We're going to explore some of the innovative thinking behind the Insight, and Honda's overall future strategy in a forthcoming blog, which will feature the interview we did with Honda UK's head of environment and government affairs - John Kingston - while we had the Insight.

But for now, we felt it worth delving a little bit more into the design and detail of the Insight - because this is an area which has raised much interest among others. Or to put it more bluntly, the fact that people think it looks like a Prius has raised plenty of eyebrows. So here are some key thoughts, details and features of the Insight in full on, close up technicolour...

Pretty? Not really, but hardly repulsive either. That high, chopped-off tail, and steeply sloping rear roofline combine to create what's known as a 'kamm-tail'. Invented (discovered?) by German design-engineer, Wunibald Kamm, it reduces the air turbulence thrown off the back of the car at speeds - which in turn reduces aerodynamic drag.

The key contributing factor to people saying that the Insight looks like a Prius is the silhouette and side profile of the glass house. This becomes particularly evident when you see the upper part of the car in isolation, as in the picture above, but some of the detail resolution...